According to the country’s Gaming Oversight and Control Commission (EEEP), 2014 saw Greek punters wager a total of €5.9b, a gain of 9% over 2013’s total. While the break in the five-year losing streak will be welcome news, 2014’s total is still well off the €8.7b Greeks wagered in 2009, right before the country’s economy truly began circling the toilet drain. The average spend per gambler was up 7.5% to €187 last year.
Former state-owned betting monopoly OPAP accounted for €3.8b of 2014’s total wagers, while its Hellenic Lotteries subsidiary sucked up an additional €500m (€88.4m via scratch cards). Together, the two firms accounted for 72% of the total spend. Casino gaming turnover fell by €100m to €1.6b, accounting for 27% of the total pie. The ODIE horseracing monopoly handled €65m, representing a mere 1% of the total.
The cash-strapped Greek government took a €525m cut of the gambling proceeds. EEEP didn’t break out individual stats for online gambling but the country’s new Syriza-led government recently announced it hopes to raise an additional €500m per year via the issuing of new online gambling licenses.
The government has previously claimed that Greeks were spending €5b per year on unauthorized gambling channels, including online gambling sites that offer a wider variety of services than OPAP. In 2011, the country handed out 24 temporary online licenses to international operators, only to revoke them one year later in a bid to bolster the value of its one-third stake in OPAP, which has since been sold to the Emma Delta consortium.